News in Brief

Basalt Town Hall officials hope they won’t see any garbage on TV starting next week.The town is installing video cameras at its recycling center to deter people from dumping unwanted items. The recycling center is occasionally the dumping ground for ratty furniture, worn tires and stinky garbage bags, despite its highly visible location between Town Hall and Taqueria el Nopal Restaurant.”At the end of August there were probably three couches and I was sick with rage,” said Town Manager Bill Efting. “I said this is enough.”The town had teamed earlier in the summer with the Pitkin County Solid Waste Center, which picks up the recyclable materials, to install more signs urging people not to dump trash at the site. It worked, but just for a while.Now the town and Pitkin County are ramping up their efforts. They split the $6,800 cost of installing surveillance cameras. The system should be working by the end of next week, Efting said.A handful of computers in Town Hall will be capable of monitoring what people are doing at the recycling Dumpsters. More important, images can be stored for a week. If discarded couches mysteriously materialize overnight, the town hopes to capture an image of the offender, a vehicle or both, Efting said.There will be no honeymoon for violators. They will be subject immediately to prosecution for littering or unlawful dumping on property. The maximum fine is a $1,000 fine, up to one year in jail or both.”The party is over. We’re going to prosecute,” Efting said.

World Cup officials haven’t approached Aspen to add another women’s giant slalom for next month’s Winternational races after the cancellation of this weekend’s season-opening GS.High temperatures and rain caused organizers in Soelden, Austria, to call off Saturday’s women’s race and Sunday’s men’s race on the Rettenbach Glacier.”The answer is probably not,” Aspen Skiing Co. spokesman Jeff Hanle said. “It’s possible, but not probable … If we got 3 feet of snow and super-cold weather in the next two weeks and the course is bombproof, then maybe. But usually the way it goes is that we’re working up to the last minute to get the course ready.”No one is saying, ‘Hey, can you guys host a race?'”Makeup races are a regular occurrence on the World Cup circuit.Three years ago, Beaver Creek hosted a makeup men’s downhill after Val d’Isere, France, canceled its races because of lack of snow.The next women’s race – a slalom – is scheduled for Nov. 11 in Levi, Finland.

EAGLE Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said his investigators have information that might lead them to those who sent out an anonymous postcard smearing county commissioner candidate Sara Fisher.There are avenues and leads we can go on, Hurlbert said. He declined to discuss specifics for fear it would jeopardize the investigation.The postcards used rumor and innuendo in an obvious attempt to discredit Fisher, a Democrat, in the race for the downvalley commissioner seat. Fisher said she didnt suspect her opponents, Republican Tom Edwards and independent Roger Brown, of ties to the postcard. Edwards and Brown said they werent involved and denounced the tactics.Once his staff finishes its investigation, the results will be examined by a bipartisan committee of district attorneys, which regularly convenes during campaign season, Hurlbert said. The committee will recommend whether to pursue charges, but Hurlbert makes the final call.A person who knowingly makes false statements against a candidate for political office can face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to 18 months in the county jail, Hurlbert said. A person who recklessly makes false statements can be charged with a lesser misdemeanor thats punishable by up to one year in jail.Hurlbert put no timetable on the investigation. (Vail Daily)